


How to Train an Ace

by adrabbleness



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Bokuto needs Akaashi for everything, Comedy, Fluff, Gen, Teacher Akaashi, a different teaching approach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25016545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrabbleness/pseuds/adrabbleness
Summary: Akaashi uses creative measures to ensure that their star volleyball player gets a half-decent grade on his next Biology quiz.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou
Comments: 6
Kudos: 117





	How to Train an Ace

**Author's Note:**

> This is without a doubt a crack-fic, and one I wanted to write for one specific line that popped up in my shower thoughts. Loosely based on Cells at Work...
> 
> I'll do a proper BokuAka fluff later. He he.

A vice captain’s job was to assist the captain with managing the team.

It was _not_ to assist the captain in managing his grades.

“Bokuto-san… it’s time… Show me your grades.”

“Aw… Akaashi, do I have to? You always get angry when I do…”

“Please… The sooner I see your grades, the sooner we can think about our options.”

Fukuroudani High had just secured their spot to the National Spring Tournament, and the team had a lot to celebrate about. But before setting out to defeat the country’s top volleyball teams, they had to first overcome a great obstacle on home soil: Bokuto’s incredibly bad grades.

Their coach and teachers had made it a point to tell the team that the 3rd years could only participate in the tournament if they maintained a decent average in all of their classes. While this seemed like a reasonable request for most of them, it seemed to be a much harder one to uphold for their ace.

Which is why Akaashi and the rest of the 3rd years had now taken it upon themselves to catch Bokuto at the end of the school day, with the goal of interrogating him about his current academic standing. They had gone so far as to bar the entrance of his classroom in case he decided to make a run for it.

“Bokuto-san… now,” Akaashi said, shooting the owl-like man a stern look.

Bokuto pouted sadly under his gaze, but nodded, handing him a crumbled piece of paper.

Akaashi opened it slowly, holding his breath as he read its contents. The other 3rd years, now worried about his expression, hovered over Akaashi’s shoulder to assess the damage.

Konoha broke the silence, with a half-relieved sigh.

“It’s okay, Akaashi … He barely passed on most of his subjects… but at least he only failed Biology this time!”

Akaashi groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“That’s only because I’ve been giving him crash-course lessons the night before each test…” he explained, mentally exhausted from the memory.

Bokuto tugged on his sleeve to catch his attention; he had a hopeful look on his face.

“Don’t worry Akaashi, I’m sure I’ll be able to pass the make-up quiz. I mean, I have you helping me… And you explain it so much better than any of my teachers!” he said, trying to cheer him up.

“Bokuto-san… Don’t wait for me to teach you… Just do the work yourself,” Akaashi scolded him.

“No, Akaashi! Don’t abandon me!” Bokuto cried, pulling on his arm now.

Akaashi pried himself out of his grasp, and sat down on one of the empty desks of the classroom. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, already trying to think of a lesson plan for the man.

“It’s one quiz, right? What’s it on?” Sarukui piped in, patting his now-dejected captain on the shoulder.

“We’re learning about the human body… The latest quiz was on the immune system, specifically. But the make up quiz shouldn’t be too bad…” Washio stated.

Akaashi shook his head in frustration, looking over at them now.

“Oh, it’s bad…. Apparently Bokuto only remembered one thing from the _whole semester_ …” he replied.

“What’s that?”

“Go on, Bokuto-san. Tell them what you learned.”

Happy to be called upon again, Bokuto jumped in front of his peers, sticking his chest out proudly.

“The mitochondria is the _powerhouse_ of the cell! That means that it’s the ace of the cell team, like _me_!” he proclaimed.

There was a moment of silence, as the other 3rd years stared at him in utter disbelief. Once they realized that the man was indeed serious, they immediately doubled over in fits of laughter.

“H-hey! What’s the matter, what’s so funny!? I want to know the joke too!” Bokuto demanded.

This only made them laugh harder. They were now spread out on the classroom floor, pounding on the ground with their fists.

Shaking his head again, Akaashi walked over calmly to his captain, pulling him back by his uniform collar.

“Don’t worry about them, Bokuto-san… _We_ have some training to do at the library.”

\--

Getting Bokuto motivated about studying proved to be as difficult as getting him re-energized during a volleyball game after one of his mood swings.

They sat at a desk at the back corner of the school’s library, surrounded by Bokuto’s Biology textbook and other reference material Akaashi had brought over to help him understand the material.

“Bokuto-san… I know this is tiring for you, but the sooner we can get through this chapter, the sooner we can both go home.”

Bokuto had his head down on his opened notes; his mind had completely checked out after the first hour of studying.

“But this stuff is so _boring_ , Akaashi… I don’t see how it applies to me at all,” he complained.

He reached over his seat to get his bag on the ground and took out a volleyball from it. He then began to twirl it absentmindedly in his palms, as his eyes scanned the page for the umpteenth time.

Upon seeing the volleyball, a brilliant idea struck Akaashi like a lightning bolt.

“Bokuto-san… What if I told you that the immune system was like volleyball?”

The boy’s ears perked up immediately.

“Really?! Now you’re talking my language!!! How so?!” he asked, excited now.

Akaashi gulped nervously, quickly flipping through the textbook in front of him.

He had finally caught Bokuto’s attention… Now he just needed a ridiculously forged story to carry him through to the end of their lesson.

“Well just think of the human body as a volleyball court. Now pretend that we’re the immune system, and we’re on one side of the court. And on the other side of the court… You have a group of foreign antigens that are trying to enter the body.”

“Oh? So we’re facing them in a match?” Bokuto asked, closing his eyes to picture the scene in his mind.

“Uhh… Yes, they’re our opponents in this case.”

Akaashi took out another book from his pile to read up on more definitions.

“Okay… so our team is made up of mainly white blood cells. Think of them as our wing spikers and middle blockers. They work together to defend against the foreign antigens, and launch immune attacks against them!” he explained.

Bokuto’s eyes shone brightly at his words. “Woah! Cool… So Washio, Sarukui, and Konoha are white blood cells, then!”

“Er… sure…”

Bokuto looked back at his notes, reading them more intently now.

“So, so… What about our libero, Komi? Who’s he?” Bokuto asked, grinning up at him.

Akaashi scratched his cheek, flustered.

“Libero… Uh… He’s the B cell?” he suggested.

“B cell?”

“Y-yeah. B cells doesn’t get the same kind of action as the white blood cells… but they’re still major defensive players when we talk about immunity. They fight antigens by producing antibodies.”

It was a bit of a stretch, Akaashi knew, but Bokuto seemed to take it in as truth. He nodded as if completely understanding the concept now.

“Is there an ace on this immune team?” he asked now, a determined look on his face.

“A what now?”

“An ace!!! C’mon, Akaashi… you’re not telling me there’s not some super awesome cell out there attacking antigens, are you?”

Akaashi laughed, nodding at the enthusiastic man.

“I’m sure there is, Bokuto-san. Hmm… let me see… I guess the ace would be the killer T cell. These cells are _professional_ killers of foreign antigens… they even deal with cancer cells,” he emphasized.

“Woah, that is awesome! And what a cool title! I should totally call myself that!” Bokuto stated.

“Please don’t.”

Bokuto chuckled, spinning his volleyball on top of the desk now.

“So if I’m the killer T cell… What about my #1 disciple?” he pondered aloud.

“Hinata?”

“Yeah… is there like an underling cell?” Bokuto asked.

Not wanting to hinder his current quest for knowledge, Akaashi quickly flipped to the next page of the textbook to find more material.

“Uh… of course. So, when we first met Hinata, he was basically a novice at volleyball, right?”

Bokuto chuckled, shaking his head.

“Yeah, he used to be so cute… Asking us so many questions about blocking and receiving!”

Akaashi smiled.

“Yes… So during that time, he could be considered as a naïve T cell, who hasn’t come into contact with any kind of real opponent or antigen yet. But he’s not that anymore.”

“He’s not?”

“Yes. Since our first meeting, Hinata’s grown by encountering so many more teams… er, antigens…. And now, he can be considered as an activated effector T cell!”

Bokuto gasped, blinking rapidly at him.

“Wow, my disciple’s got a cool title too! And how about you, Akaashi? Who are you on our immune team?”

The expression on Bokuto’s face was almost like a child being told that magic existed, and it warmed Akaashi’s heart to the core.

He smiled at his endearing senpai, closing the textbook and leaning forward on the desk.

“Since I’m the setter, I would be closest to a helper T cell. I’m the guy in charge, formulating our play against the opposing team – in this case, our immune attack.”

Bokuto’s face lit up at this, and he scanned for the term in his notebook.

“So then, you call for the other T cells to help, right? Do you call for killer T cells, too?” he asked, hopefully.

Akaashi chuckled, nodding at the man.

“Of course, Bokuto-san. I’ll always call for you.”

\--

Akaashi paced nervously around the volleyball club room, monitoring the large clock by the wall. He had made good progress tutoring Bokuto for the week, but he wasn’t sure if his array of volleyball metaphors were enough to get him through a full quiz.

As he continued to stress, the door suddenly swung open.

Bokuto charged in and immediately jumped at Akaashi with a bear hug.

“AKAASHI! I DID IT!” he exclaimed, squeezing him tightly in his glee.

“Y-you… You passed!?” Akaashi asked, flabbergasted.

Bokuto lifted his head to give him a victorious smile.

“62 percent!” he declared proudly.

Akaashi sighed, a small smile tugging on his lips.

It was barely a pass, let alone something to celebrate. But a win was a win, in Bokuto’s book.

Akaashi wrapped his hands around the man, giving him a few soft pats on the back.

“Good job, Captain.”

The other 3rd years entered through the door now, chuckling at their iconic volleyball duo.

“Bokuto gave you the good news, then?” Konoha asked, shaking his head at his friend’s ridiculous antics. He pulled Bokuto off Akaashi, bringing him to his locker.

Akaashi nodded, moving to his own locker to get his workout clothes. “Yes, he just did. I’m glad our studying paid off,” he said, smiling.

“But did he tell you about the other thing?” Sarukui asked, snickering.

Akaashi paused, narrowing his eyes at his teammate.

“What _other_ thing?”

The two older men gave each other a look, and then turned away, clearly holding in laughter.

“So apparently, Bokuto did well on the true and false, and the matching portion of the quiz...” Sarukui started.

“But he lost a lot of marks on the longer, written answers for his, uh… _interesting_ explanations,” finished Konoha, smirking now.

Finally realizing what they were getting at, Akaashi whipped his head to look at Bokuto.

“Bokuto-san, give me your make-up quiz! Now!” he demanded.

Bokuto gave him a confused look but obliged. He hovered over Akaashi’s shoulder as the younger man quickly flipped through the pages of his quiz.

“I don’t know why you’re being so tense, Akaashi… I wrote down everything I knew, just like you taught me.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of!”

Akaashi stopped at the final page of the quiz, and as promised, there were a lot of red markings on his long answers. He held his breath, as he went on to read a few of the teacher’s comments.

_Who is Hinata? And why is he your disciple?_

_Why did you refer to yourself as the killer T-cell?_

_These volleyball terms… What on earth do they have to do with the immune system?_

_PLEASE SEE ME AFTER CLASS!_

Akaashi stared at the page for a few minutes in silence. Finally, he let out an exhale, and turned slowly towards his captain.

“Uh… Akaashi… Are you okay? Your expression is really scaring me right now…”

“Come along, Bokuto-san…”

“Where are we going, Akaashi?”

“To apologize to your Biology teacher. I’ve made a terrible mistake in your training.”


End file.
